Credit Where It’s Due

Hundreds of residents in Maryville, Missouri held a rally last night to support Daisy Coleman and Paige Parkhurst, the two rape victims (that we know of) whose attackers went unpunished.

I’ve been very critical of the town, but those who showed up to last night’s rally deserve credit for breaking the mold and speaking up. And, while I sometimes find their methods and motives questionable, Anonymous also deserves credit for working with activist Courtney Cole to organize the rally and ultimately have the case reopened.

ThinkProgress has more photos of the event from photographer Kevin Morgan and the St. Joseph News-Press.

I wish I could say otherwise, but I’m skeptical that the recently-reopened investigation will lead to pressing charges. I hope I am proven wrong.

I can’t help but wonder how many of the people showing up to “support” the victims also participated and supported the attacks on them and their families.

cleos_mom

No telling, but I noticed that the original Kansas City “Star” article did use the semi-dogwhistle “close-knit community”. The participants might be among the loosely knit, however.

feloniousgrammar

As long as Anonymous doesn’t hack into private accounts and do anything to interfere with the investigation or poison the well. I can appreciate that the victims appreciate the call for protest, but would caution them against allowing Anonymous to take over the task of fighting their battles.

JMAshby

In the past I may have agreed with you more, but Steubenville changed things.

If it weren’t for what Anonymous did in Steubenville, uncovering data that was suppressed, I don’t think the attorney general would have gotten involved.

Not that women need knights, but its hard to argue against a little digital vigilantism when local authorities have actively suppressed information.

The technology chief at Steubenville high school was arrested 2 weeks ago for covering up evidence.

feloniousgrammar

There’s the problem right there. First, the victim and her parents pressed charges. Alexandria Goddard blogged about this case from the beginning and is STILL blogging about it. There was a nine page article about the Steubenville rape in the New York Times before Anonymous got it on the action. Anonymous didn’t pluck this story from the nether regions of obscurity and bring it to national attention.

Anonymous also crossed a lot of lines. And what if another Anonymous wanted to protect high school football stars from girls who “cry rape” using the same methods? Whatever Anonymous contributed, and for whatever it’s worth, he/she is not an expert in rape or criminal law.

Alexandria Goddard has had to deal with multiple lawsuits from the parents of the rapists, and she has prevailed.

Anonymous didn’t pluck this story from the nether regions of obscurity and bring it to national attention.

Why is that a problem? We should be glad that there are people who will take action when others won’t or can’t.

Others may have alerted them to the story, but they saw a problem and took action. Why is that bad?

And what if another Anonymous wanted to protect high school football stars from girls who “cry rape” using the same methods?

Until that actually happens this is just speculation.

It doesn’t take an expert in criminal law to know that a video of an unconscious girl being carried around is wrong.

http://drangedinaz.wordpress.com/ IrishGrrrl

While I can appreciate Anonymous’ contribution in this case, they won’t be there for every woman in similar circumstances. We need to have a reliable and institutional means that gives women recourse in cases like this. Perhaps a law that says full discovery must be given to the rape victim and if not the prosecutor/investigators suffer criminal penalties and DOJ review may be requested by the victim, etc, etc…..I’m not a lawyer so IDK but we can’t and shouldn’t rely on Anonymous for this kind of thing.

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